Total Wall Street Bailout Cost

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The Wall Street Bailout Cost table is produced and updated monthly by the Real Economy Project of the Center for Media and Democracy, which publishes this website, SourceWatch. This calculation was peer-reviewed by economists at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C. This table relies entirely on government data and represents an accounting of actual government funds disbursed, mostly in the form of loans. Our total includes major programs of the U.S. Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve and other government agencies to assist the financial sector and institutions that had a role in the crisis. It does not include stimulus funds, unemployment, student loans, auto bailout and other initiatives to create jobs or support citizens. See Glossary of terms below. Learn more at our Financial Crisis Tracker page on Sourcewatch.

Our Wall Street Bailout Cost table has been featured by CNN, PBS,Dollars and Sense Magazine and praised by financial services expert and author Nomi Prins. "Given the government's reticence at providing transparent information regarding its gifts to Wall Street, and having painstakingly compiled dynamic monthly tallies of the total federal bailout and subsidies for which the American people are at risk, I know too well how difficult it is to accumulate this data in a meaningful way. CMD's much-needed contribution toward further delineating the disbursement amounts completes the picture of the banking system's hoard at our expense. This fantastic work provides a scary yardstick for exactly where we are now, even if the banks never raid a single cent more of the perks to which they still have access." Nomi Prins - Author It Takes a Pillage; Behind the Bailouts, Bonuses and Backroom Deals from Washington to Wall Street (Wiley, Sept. 2009)

Updated September 2010.

Glossary
These terms are used in the chart above and in the charts for each individual program, which are hyperlinked above. “At-risk” means the total commitment of taxpayer funds made publicly by the relevant public officials (for example, the government may have committed $3.35 billion dollars to guarantee losses in money market mutual funds without having actually disbursed them). “Maximum at-risk” is the high-water mark of government commitments to a program, the maximum level of taxpayer funds that were "at-risk" of being tapped at the height of the crisis. On the program charts you will also see “current at-risk,” which refers to the present, publicly stated level of commitment to a program (for example, when Treasury announced that the Public-Private Investment Program could entail up to a trillion dollars in government investments when first announced, but that figure was later revised downwards and currently stands at $30 billion).

“Disbursed” means funds that have either gone out the door or, as is common at the Federal Reserve, new balances that were created on the Fed’s balance sheet and placed in a specific account. “Outstanding” means funds that have been disbursed but have not been paid back or removed from the balance sheet.

For individual program totals, see the complete program details in the individual program pages. Generally, figures for disbursements are taken directly from data released by the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury. Many “max at-risk” figures are taken from reports of the Special Inspector General for TARP. All figures are individually sourced.

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